WARNING: NEVER ASCEND ABOVE THE CEILING! You must not ascend above the
ceiling during your decompression. In order to avoid doing so by accident, you should stay
somewhat below the ceiling.
On a decompression dive, there could be three kinds of stops:
•
Safety stop: this is a recommended three-minute stop for every dive over 10 meters (32.8
ft).
•
Deepstop: this is a recommended stop when you dive deeper than 20 m (65.6 ft).
•
Decompression stop: this is a compulsory stop on your decompression dive that is for
your safety, preventing decompression sickness.
In Dive settings » Parameters, you can
•
turn deepstops on or off (it is on by default)
•
adjust the safety stop time to be 3, 4 or 5 minutes (default is 3 minutes)
•
set last stop depth to 3.0 m or 6.0 m (default is 3.0 m)
The following illustration shows a decompression dive where the ceiling is at 17.7 m (58 ft):
From bottom to top you see the following in the above image:
1. There is a decompression window (Deco window) that is the distance between the
decompression ceiling (Deco ceiling) plus 3.0 m (9.8 ft) and the decompression ceiling. So
the decompression window in this example is between 20.7 m (68 ft) and 17.7 m (58 ft).
This is the area where decompression takes place. The closer to the ceiling you stay, the
more optimal the decompression time is.
When you ascend close to the ceiling depth and enter the decompression window area,
two arrows appear in front of the depth number. The downward and upward pointing
white arrows indicate that you are within the deco window.
2. If you ascend above the ceiling depth, there is still a safe margin area, equaling to ceiling
depth minus 0.6 meters (2 ft). So in this example, it is between 17.7 m (58 ft) and 17.1 m (56
ft). In this safe margin area, decompression calculation still continues, but you are advised
to go down below ceiling depth. This is indicated by the ceiling depth number turning
yellow with a downward pointing yellow arrow in front of the depth number.
3. If you go above the safe margin area, the decompression calculation is paused until you
go back down below this limit. An audible alarm and a red downward arrow in front of the
depth number indicate unsafe decompression.
Suunto EON Steel
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